The present invention relates generally to a rack for holding objects and more particularly to a rack for holding water bottles.
A typical home delivery system for 3 and 5-gallon bottles of drinking water involves a delivery truck, racks, bottles and a driver. The delivery truck is usually configured with several bays on each side with each bay having a rollup door to enclose the product. Inside each bay one or more racks are stored filled with bottles. The racks are typically loaded and unloaded with bottles outside the bays. Fork trucks are used to move the racks in and out of the bays.
The racks have traditionally been made from metal and more recently from plastic. The plastic racks tend to be modular in design with each component making up a layer of the rack. The layer can hold four bottles in a two by two arrangement or eight bottles in a four wide by two deep arrangement. A two deep arrangement is for 5-gallon bottles whereas 3-gallon bottles will be three deep in the same space. The plastic components can sit on top of an existing pallet for transport or can incorporate runners or blocks into the bottom layer to eliminate the need for a pallet. In either case pallet trucks and jacks are the means for moving the racks. The modular design allows the distributor to stack them to any height but usually three to five layers high. At five layers the rack can hold up to forty 5-gallon bottles. Plastic racks have gained acceptance because they have proven to be more durable and the modular design allows for easy repair.
Leaking containers are a problem within the existing system. Testing has shown that the bouncing up and down of the bottles in the racks is a significant cause of leaking containers. Whenever the truck is moving the rack and bottles experience vibration and therefore relative movement. The movement at the contact points in combination with other environmental factors such as dirt and dust eventually weakens the bottle resulting in a hole or crack. Testing has shown that the softer plastic racks can reduce this, but a push toward lighter and thinner bottles to reduce costs has made the problem significantly worse in recent years.
One company has tested a metal (steel) rack that reduces the leaking container problems associated with the rack. This new rack incorporates a mechanical clamping device that locks each bottle in place during distribution. A steel tree within the rack links all the bottle pockets so that one large lever arm can lock and unlock all the bottles within the rack with one movement. A drawback to this rack is the force required to effectively clamp all the bottles in a rack. Testing has shown that the locking force from the tree on each bottle can average 100 lbs. For a 40-bottle rack this results in a total locking force of 4000 lbs. Cams and the length of the lever arm greatly reduce the input force needed from the driver but the force is still considerable. Obviously the driver will be resistant to using a system that increases his work load. Another problem with this design is that the locking force on individual bottles can vary by a large amount. This is due to a fixed travel height for the tree that cannot adjust to the varying bottle sizes and shapes as well as pocket to pocket variances within the rack.
In the current design the lever arm sticks out of the bay door when in the unlocked position. This prevents the bay door from being closed when in the unlocked position. This feature would guarantee that the locking device is used at every stop.
A second advantage of locking down the bottles is that it prevents the bottles from “walking” out of the racks during transport. In the worst case of walking, the bottle cap will rest against the inside of the bay door. When the driver tries to lift the door the cap can jam against the raised corrugations on the inside of the door. Much time and effort is required to solve this problem each time it occurs.
However, even with the existing clamping system, there is still the possibility that the driver will deliver bottles to the customer, then return to the truck and drive away while forgetting to clamp the bottles and close the door at all. When this occurs, the bottles can fall out of the vehicle, littering the roadway and possibly causing damage to other vehicles.